Last Saturday saw us going to a mini get together of Pune bloggers in Hyatt Regency Pune. We got a chance to dine with some incredible lifestyle and photography bloggers like Manasi, Amit and Nilanshu. There were long discussions about blogging, photography, cinema and other stuff. I got an opportunity to appreciate Amit’s Photography and review Manasi’s review of the Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy. As my camera has gone kaput, I also grabbed an opportunity to test Amit’s amazing D90! In all, we had a fun time together and will look forward to having many more such meetings with small groups of bloggers.
Lots of discussions ..
From my experience I have seen that food forms an integral part of any experience out of home. In our travelogues, we have been hardly touching the dining experiences till now. But we feel that we start giving some details of the places we went to and had fun. So, I am using this lunch with fellow bloggers to start a new section in Shadows Galore to review the restaurants we go to, and the first review happens to be of The Café, Hyatt Regency Pune.
“Eating out of the pan, off the grill and out of the tandoor” is how The Café describes its dining experience. Set in indoor as well as outdoor settings in a beautiful and sophisticated ambience, the restaurant serves Indian, Chinese and Continental Cuisines. It offers a la carte breakfast and buffet lunch and dinner. Additionally there is a la carte dining all day. It also has a sister Italian restaurant and a bar but I did not get a chance to explore them; maybe some other day. I had a lot to chose from, a range of salads, breads, Indian curries and and assortment of seafood and meat.
If I have to judge a restaurent, I would generally consider three parameters:
1. Behavior of the Staff
2. Ambiance
3. Quality of the food
I must say that I was quite impressed with The Café on all the three counts; the staff is courteous and ever smiling, the ambiance is elegant, quiet and ascetic (just the way I like it) and most important, the food was of great quality. The guilt factor associated with an oily-greasy lunch was thankfully absent even from the traditionally rich Indian cuisine. The range and variety in the menu was pretty exciting and I ended up eating more than what I usually do.
The Dessert Counter
Breaking my vow of a strict diet, I settled for some salad, chicken, pork, some more chicken and at the end, some rice with malabar fish curry. The salad was great though the Indian one was a tad too salty, the meat was awesome and the fish – as good as it gets. I am not much of a dessert lover but those having a sweet tooth had a gala time. Ekta mentioned that the dessert was equally delicious.
Needless to say, we came back happier and maybe a kilo heavier 🙂
Our Rating : 4.5/ 5
Photo courtesy: Biswajeet and Amit
Ok… this is where I go when I am in Pune next:-) And BTW, you should go to Darius (in Koregaon Park), a wonderful place with great food and great ambiance.